New Rutgers center to focus on keeping people safe

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University officials say the Rutgers Institute for Emergency Preparedness and Homeland Security was established to play a national and international leadership role in developing and implementing initiatives to protect the lives, health and well-being of individuals both locally and nationally.

Tom Ridge, former Pennsylvania governor and Secretary of U.S. Homeland Security, called the institute an important resource for disaster prevention, preparedness and recovery.

NEW BRUNSWICK – To prepare for and respond to natural disasters and terrorist threats, Rutgers University has created a one-stop center for public safety and homeland security.

According to its newly appointed director, the Rutgers Institute for Emergency Preparedness and Homeland Security encompasses fledgling and established programs at the university that seek to protect people and property in the event of emergencies.

The institute is expected to collaborate with several Rutgers-driven federally funded research efforts, including two Department of Homeland Security centers focusing on challenging data issues, a National Institutes of Health center developing drugs to counter chemical terrorism and an Environmental Protection Agency-funded center for exposure and risk modeling.

Clifton Lacy, a physician who formerly served as New Jersey’s health commissioner and president of Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, said the center will include a one-stop online portal that will showcase the collaborations among Rutgers experts across all statewide locations and in fields including medicine, public health, life sciences, engineering, physical sciences, humanities, social sciences, public policy, public safety and law.

“It will not only make this campus safer but the state of New Jersey and the country stronger by exporting best practices,” Lacy said. “The goal for this institute is to form a leadership role, both nationally and internationally, in the fields of emergency preparedness, disaster response and homeland security. It brings together experts from the broad spectrum of disciplines that already exist at Rutgers, to forge collaborations among those professionals and between Rutgers faculty and entities in the public and private sectors. It was necessary to bring everything under one big umbrella.”

Lacy directed the inaugural conference Friday at the Heldrich Hotel, where former Pennsylvania governor and Secretary of U.S. Homeland Security Tom Ridge and acting New Jersey Attorney General John Jay Hoffman delivered keynote addresses before 450 people gathered inside the convention center.

Edward Dickson, director of the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness, Mary O’Dowd, commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Health, Jennifer Velez, commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Human Services, and several Rutgers scientists, researchers and officials participated in the discussion.

Gov. Chris Christie was set to deliver the opening address but canceled his appearance at 10:30 p.m. Thursday, Lacy told the crowd during his welcome speech.

“The threats of global terrorism and natural disasters are something we will have to operate under forever,” Ridge said. “Mother Nature isn’t going away, whether it’s a virus mutation, hurricanes, tornados. These are things we will have to deal with. Crime, organized and otherwise, will unfortunately be part of our communities. One can argue that the challenges are truly all-hazard.

“Our primary objective is to try to prevent these things from happening. It’s a sad fact of life (that) you can’t prevent every bad accident, and terrorists and criminals are becoming more sophisticated every day. The reality is we have to accept the fact that all these things are not preventable, so our job is to manage that risk. And to do so we must constantly assess, plan and prepare as best and often as we possibly can. That is why I think the Institute for Emergency Preparedness and Homeland Security is so critical for survival. The new generation of homeland security leaders, regardless of their primary discipline and roles across prevention, preparedness and recovery, need to be able to respond to large-scale events that cannot be handled by one state or federal agency alone. Multidisciplinary private-public partnerships must be part of our DNA.”

Lacy said the institute’s expertise includes health care, emergency management, public safety, computer science and communications, and its roles will include policy development, information assessment, intelligence analysis, business development, clinical and practice initiatives and service to the community.

According to Richard Edwards, executive vice president and interim chancellor of the Rutgers New Brunswick campus, the institute is supported through grants and fundraising, as well as university research projects. The conference Friday was funded through a grant from the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness.

“Essentially,” Lacy said, “we hope it will play a leadership role nationally in developing and implementing initiatives to protect lives and better health and well-being of people in New Jersey, the United States and around the world.”